Securing a career

As computers continue
to become more challenging and necessary, so does the need for their
security. That’s why Paul Innella (’95) de-cided to form
his own information security company with some of his friends.
“We focused on the idea of information security, recognizing it
as the next technological arena to truly take off,” says Innella,
a computer science major and math minor.

In 2001, Innella
(president and CEO) formed Tetrad Digital Integrity, which provides
solutions to today’s most challenging security problems for numerous
government and commercial clients.

Georgetown-based
TDI is a small business with local and global partners. The company
has done work in New York, London, Milan, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Cincinnati
and Harrisonburg according to Innella. TDI has provided security service
for a number of organizations, including the U.S. departments of Education
and Defense. Yet, Innella is hesitant to truly call himself successful.
“I think that we have exceeded our best expectations thus far,
but I know the road ahead is long and hard,” he says. “We
make sure that we do only what we can, ensuring that our existing customers
are happy.”

TDI has also formed
an alliance of sorts with other security professionals around the world.
The International Network of Information Security Professionals was
established to “bring the many small information security firms
and independent consultants together” to try to serve customers
better.

A student spotlight
piece in the honors program newsletter Honor News foreshadowed Inella’s
career choice. “The [writers] asked me what I wanted to do after
graduation, and I said that I wanted to start a business with my friends.”

With an increase
of hacker attacks and security leaks, and since tragedies of Sept. 11,
information security and assurance has become a hot topic. TDI’s
mission is to create a safe network environment, ensuring the integrity,
confidentiality and availa-bility of information within a computing
infrastructure.

“The largest
problem we’ve noted,” Innella says, “is a lack of
properly staffed information security personnel. IS departments are
understaffed — often with professionals whose backgrounds are
not in security.”